Ganesh Chaturthi Celebration @ Sobha Palladian 2 Sept 2019

वक्रतुण्ड महाकाय सूर्यकोटि समप्रभ ।
निर्विघ्नं कुरु मे देव सर्वकार्येषु सर्वदा ॥
Vakra-Tunndda Maha-Kaaya Suurya-Kotti Samaprabha |
Nirvighnam Kuru Me Deva Sarva-Kaaryessu Sarvadaa ||

Meaning:
1: (Salutations to Sri Ganesha) Who has a Curved Trunk, Who has a Large Body and Whose Splendour is similar to Million Suns; 
2: O Deva, Please Make my Undertakings Free of Obstacles, By extending Your Blessings in All my Works, Always.


Ganesh Chaturthi  also known as Vinayaka Chaturthi  is a popular festival celebrating the arrival of Ganesha on earth from Mt. Kailash with his mother goddess Gauri.
The festival celebrates Lord Ganesha as the God of New Beginnings and the Remover of Obstacles as well as the god of wisdom and intelligence.
and if i recall my history correctly, it was our nationalist and freedom fighter Lokmanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak who turned the private, household Ganesh Chathurthi celebration into the present 10 - day carnival.  And he brought the various sects of HIndus and the brahmins and the non brahmins  to come together and celebrate this festival in a grand manner.

We too at Sobha Palladian celebrated Vinayaka Chaturthi in a memorable way.!

This Blog is inspired by the fantastic photographs taken by Manoj and the enthusiasm and actions captured in all those frames. And the interesting conversations over the Whats App group by the many volunteers.

Sadly I was down with fever ant could not participate in this event. But that does not stop me from giving all folks who missed this event a short recap of the celebrations. 

Satyendra Pradhan was a very busy man. Two days before the event I could see him crisscrossing the fountain lawns, talking to many people, inspecting the clubhouse and planning this mega event. He was the prime mover and the driving force. And along with Srini and Jayashree they put up a wonderful show on 2 Sept 2019!!

Ramya set up a new Whats App group, Ganesha Volunteers and within minutes it was flooded with folks happy and eager & willing to pitch in!

Yes we quickly had many ladies coning forth to make prasad for the morning Puja ceremony and also a lot more prasads for the evening function. 

and the Rangoli team presented their design.

and the SP Music Club came up with  what they planned to sing

And Lakshmi designed and fabricated a nice silver wrapped Hundi for donation collections!! 

and Satyen came up with brilliant idea to put together a few scaffolding rods to construct a shelter under which Lord Ganesha would be installed!!

And Shwetha would get the kids to do a Skit 

And Krati wanted to conduct a Ganesha Clay modelling workshop

and the list goes on...

Ganesha Sthapna and Pooja     

Drawing Competition for the Kids !!

Amazing concentration....

And finally Ganesha came in all sizes and shapes..

KaleNele – Where Color meets Craft!!

I thought the rainbow up in the sky was the most gorgeous colorful thing in the entire world ….

Until I went to the KaleNele solo exhibition hosted by Janhavi (Flat  #5001) at the Bangalore International Center, last Friday.

I was bedazzled!!

KaleNele : Kale = craft, Nele = shelter in Kannada.  A shelter for traditional craft.

And that is the mission of this wonderful young company that started 6 years ago.

With hands-on experience working at one of the pioneering Brand in furnishing retail in India, Janhavi started on her own with a dream to bring local art and craftsmanship from Uttara (North) Karnataka to the forefront of the Indian modern society.

Uttara Karnataka falls on the Deccan plateau which is famous for cotton and silk.  And with rich mineral deposits and free flowing water from river Krishna and its tributaries, weaving , dyeing and creation of bright colorful fabrics flourished.  And also the famous Kasuti embroidery and Kinhal wood carving and crafts and murals.

Alas with the onslaught of synthetic textiles and the western influence and changing fashion trends, this region along with its rich traditional art and culture got side-lined.

Janhavi is focused on bringing back this glorious past to the modern society and the urban public. And she narrates a wonderful story of those good times of Uttara Karnataka through bright colorful display of products and handicrafts!!

And her journey has been fascinating so far!

The challenge is in product development & Marketing.  And how to give a modern touch and relevance to the old style products.

The age old traditional & ‘classical’ products needed to be re positioned to current day market trend. They needed to be adapted and redesigned to urban appeal. And many times, the entire production process needed to be modified and re engineered. And that’s a tough call specially to convince the rural weavers, and craftsman to invest in modifying their loom and equipment & upgrading them as well.

Product creation,design and product marketing is challenging. . Most large companies engage with big market research agencies to identify the right market segment. And then big teams of specialists and product designers and factory, process and quality engineers get engaged to come up with the right range and variety for the market.

And this duo could manage all that with just a group of village artisans who have never entered a high school campus!

 And they have very successfully introduced  hundreds of skillfully designed and perfectly made products!! Truly amazing!!

Check it out for yourself!!!

Vibrant colors & ethnic designs 

Chunky Neck wear for that ‘retro’ appeal

Meet Shree the creative designer who helped put up this impressive show.

Shree is modelling for an exclusive range of Silk shawls!

Emerald & Gold: from the royal collection !

                        

Waiting for Santa!!

Challenging the Rainbow!!

‘Yes, we are getting there, one step at a time’, says a modest Anand.

And Agasthya is having fun while Mom & Grand mom are busy shopping!!

Music – Frozen in time!!

Ethnic Wear Collection!!

Wish I could buy all of them …

What next Janhavi ?? 

Let me guess….

KaleNele solo fashion shows all over India

KaleNele goes public with a successful IPO

And KaleNele gets listed at the BSE with Janhavi ringing the bell !!!

And all of us at SP look forward to seeing these happen very soon!

Jayanthi & Krish..

August & on Friday the 23rd @ Sobha Palladian!!

A flimsy piece of paper…

And a bag of 100 plastic coins…

And that is all it takes to drive our Clubhouse packed with Palladinas into a frenzy !!

And I witnessed this wonderful event with fascination..

Every available chair was taken.

And groups of children squatted on the floor.

And many folks lined up along the side walls  

And many more leaned back for support on the back wall !!

All of them clutching dearly to a piece of flimsy paper.

With a 3 by 9 matrix of squares.

With 15  random numbers printed on them.

And that is all they needed to increase their pulse rate, and palpitate their heart !!.

And drive a surge of adrenaline.

Or bring that dizzy feeling of of joy & ecstasy.

Or slip into a sudden chasm of deep disappointment.

And all of them &  within a matter of seconds!  

Animated children squatting on the floor.

Chatting (or Chattering ) continuously.

Boisterous boys, serious and tense looking girls

And tiny tots running all over !!

Gents, ladies and senior citizens

All hooked on to a piece of flimsy paper

A gasp of excitement, a loud WOW, a huge sigh and a clamor of noise

Soon fills the air as each number is read out !!

Fortunately there were no heat attacks or nervous breakdowns

But it would be very prudent to have a qualified (non-playing) doctor on standby.

What were they doing , Folks ?? 

Palladians were  playing Tumbola !!

Kya Bola ??

TUMBOLA !!!

And I have not seen such an enthusiastic participation across all age groups in a long time.

And I  saw that moon faced boy fist pumping in the air as he scored a hit.

The young girl gave a short yelp as she struck off a number on her flimsy paper

The uncle next to me sighed with disappointment as he stared at his still virgin flimsy paper.

The boisterous boys erupted in a loud animated discussion causing the conductor to come heavily on them. And the two ring leaders had to move up and sit right in front of the entire gathering.

And some silence followed as she started pulling out numbers from her magic bag.

Two fat ladies – # 22

Sweet Sixteen - # 16

Beautiful legs / sexy legs – # 11  (did she get that one ??)

Or Kaala Dhan - # 2 ??

And so on…

And slowly and steadily, jaldi five, top, middle and bottom rows get filled.

And the ever-optimistic still looked eagerly to strike the full house.

And the full house gets split between two contestants.

Don’t get dukhi folks, there  will be more  rounds to go.

And there is piping hot dosas and eats right outside at the food truck to pep up your mood!!

Hats off to Mr Pradhan for this wonderful initiative.

And THANKS to Col Jaggi Narula, Jayashree, and Ritu Sethi for conducting this action packed event .

Krish..

Our wonderful neighbors next door

‘Good Morning Uncle’!! a clear vibrant voice interrupts my serious early morning conversation with my succulent cactus family.
And it has that wonderful nasal twang that I instantly recognize.
 I look up and wave to this slender long-legged girl with sharp features and a fully loaded backpack, as she rushes to catch the early morning school bus.
Do not get  mistaken. She is not going to school to study.
No way!
She is going to a very reputed International school to teach English Literature and Shakespeare to the senior students!

Surprised?? 
and what if I told you that her young husband does more than a five mile jog early mornings @ 5.30AM each day.

Life for this young couple  is tough. Wake up at dawn, get ready, pack food and rush to work. Come back dog tired, eat food and crash! And that happens every work day – some days it can get worse too.

What about  Mom and Dad?

One of the coolest folks here in Sobha Palladian. Mom is vivacious, full of pep and vigor, and Dad is rock steady, cool as cucumber as the saying goes. Perfect example of calm, patience and maturity. He walks with a measured pace with headphones on his ears seriously listening to Ghazals and old Rafi songs.

While Dad retired after a hectic career chasing circulation figures and market shares for Deccan Herald and Prajavani, Mom still packs in a full day of action with  badminton, book club, brisk walks -  over and above a packed schedule each day with batches of senior students lined up to take special coaching in Accountancy after school.

And if you are a book lover, and you walk into their house, you have reached a Treasure Trove! A literary heaven!!

Walls lined with stacks of books of all genres – fiction, bio, travel, Tamil classics and many many more. All in mint condition and arranged neatly one on top of the other. Hundreds of them.
Unlike the conventional way of arranging the book standing up on the edge, these are vertically stacked. So, no book gets bent or curved or slides down and you do not need those heavy elephant shaped book retaining ends either.

And as you stand in front of the book shelf, mesmerized by this wonderful collection, a surprise walk in quietly. 
She is a freshly shampooed Persian cat with all her regal looks and that scant disregard for humans.
Surprised again? 
Then wait until you see another freshly shampooed Persian sauntering in. This one has dark grey fluffy hair, soft and silky. And they both occupy the two most comfortable sofa chairs.

And if you can understand their feline language, this is what you will hear them say – ‘Humans, those benches are good enough for you folks’!

Well, you just got introduced to our neighbours @ 2004 – Srini, Gayatri, Archana & Koushick!

And Honey and Dusty !

Krish..